ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS OF THE PEACE CORPS, DUBLIN CASTLE
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS OF THE PEACE CORPS, DUBLIN CASTLE FRIDAY 15th NOVEMBER, 2002
A dhaoine uaisle, is mór an onóir agus an pléisiúr dom bheith anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle bhuíochas libh as an chaoin-chuireadh.
I am delighted to be part of the Peace Corps 30th anniversary celebrations. I thank Seán Jevens, Co‑ordinator General, and Father John Wall, Founder of the Peace Corps, for inviting me and giving me this opportunity to say a warm thank you to all members, past and present for 30 years of voluntary caring and sharing. It is your contribution to building up our civic strength which is at the heart of this gathering for without your work and your commitment the story of these past thirty years would be very different for a lot of people. You brought opportunity, hope, energy and vision from those first days when you came together to build a youth centre in Ballyfermot 30 years ago. There were I am sure plenty of people who complained of the need for such a place and who saw how much it could change things but there is a long road between wishing and doing. You travelled that road. Your efforts brought new choices to young people and your witness to the value of volunteering challenged them to dig deep inside themselves and become givers and not just takers. You showed them how to become leaders, to become inspirers of change, builders of their own community. No law forces anyone to become a member of the Corps, a volunteer, a friend, a patron. Yet people with a thousand other important things to be doing, commit as you do, to this organization out of faith and hope in the strength of community. It is a remarkable thing too that no one does any of this for thanks or for selfish rewards though you are all entitled to the warmest of thanks. I am certain that many Peace Corps volunteers would admit that there is huge personal fulfilment in this work, that it confers on their lives a depth, a meaning, a relevance, a purpose and a richness which is hard to describe unless you live it. Through the Corps you have gone a profound journey into yourself. You have been tested in many ways and rewarded too with new skills, new friendships and a range of achievements which build up pride and self-esteem and which earn you deserved respect. Almost without knowing it you have been investing in your own future, making yourself stronger while helping others to a better life too.
The long-term impact of participating in the Corps is clearly reflected in the fact that many former members have entered caring professions such as social work, teaching and community work. So the values of the Peace Corps travel out widely into our society and wherever they go we know we will find citizens who make good colleagues, good neighbours, reliable friends, community-builders, peoples who are not just carers but doers.
It bodes well for the future that the Peace Corps continues to attract young volunteers at a time when there are worries at the rate volunteering is declining. It would be a truly dreadful thing if this generation which is the best fed, best educated and best housed of any generation ever in Ireland became the generation which diluted the great tradition of caring passed on from the generations which knew little but poverty, emigration, misery and hopelessness. Here in the Peace Corps you honour and vindicate that proud tradition – you make sure each new generation takes over its sacred stewardship of care. You teach our young that their lives matter, that when they are strong our country is strong, that their work can change things for the better, that it is true to say “it is in giving that we receive”. They learn to take pride in their own talents, to admire the talents of others, to comprehend that when they work with others who have different abilities there is a creative energy unleashed which stretches each of them and gives them a chance to be part of something infinitely greater than themselves.
I thank you for all that you have done to make sure our young people live life to the full for there is nothing more disheartening than a life only half lived, a life characterised by underachievement, a life lived by a human being who never got to know their own talents never really got to know themselves. The Peace Corps is about making sure our young people blossom and through them our country. I congratulate you on thirty years of outstanding achievement and wish you every success in the next thirty. Go raibh maith agaibh.